Nation's Banking System Not At Risk After Collapse

On the record - International

September 12, 1995

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — The collapse of South Africa's first fully black-owned bank, Africa Bank Ltd., is a blow to black economic empowerment, but economic analysts and officials see no threat to the country's overall banking system. The 20-year-old bank closed Monday after being put under receivership Saturday. The bank was set up in the 1970s at the height of apartheid to assist mostly black investors. Africa Bank had been viewed as an example of black economic empowerment - a central tenet of South Africa's post-apartheid government - and the Reserve Bank's refusal to throw it a lifeline has angered some in the black community.